St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-10-29


Business is Conducted up in That
Country-A Driver Who Got a Bath
In Upper Michigan there are thousands
and thousands of men and boys hard at
work in the great saw mills from April
to November. You would stand and
look by the hour if you were to visit
some of these great mills for the first
time, so much is there to excite your
curiosity and make you ask questions l
am not going to tell you all about them
now, but in order to tell you about Nibs
and Fed I must show you how it was
they were working together.
Come with me, then, up these rough,
dust-covered stairs and we will look at
the mill Here, at the end nearest the
"bOom"-that is, the water where the
logs are tloating-you see an "endless"
chain with great teeth on it every few
feet that come up under the logs as they
are tloated into the slip and drag them
up into the mill. Here you see men roll
ing those logs one after another down up
the carriage" Of the circular, or round
saw. Other men stand on the carriage
and, when the log is ready, the sawyer
presses lever and the carriage runs for
ward upon the saw which cuts slab
off one side of the log Then
the sawyer presses another lever and
the carriage runs back, the log is
turned over, slab is taken off the other
side and then it is run over to the
gang" The gang is lot of saws-there
are thirtyfour in this one-that are
fastened side by side just little more
than an inch apart, and they will cut
sometimes as many as fifty boards at one
run of their carriage. As fast as the
boards are ripped out by the gang saws,
men take them upon tables and run
them through "trimming' saws that cut
off the rough edges, straighten them, and
cut off their ends so as to make them of
the proper length, or to cut away imper-
fections. Then other men run the boards
out at the other end of the mill, for the
logs and boards keep moving on from
the time those teeth catch them in the
boom until the lumber is ready for the
piles, and pile them on little, short cars
that run on small iron rails which are laid
down on floor over great high trestles
that are built away out from the mill
wherever the men have to pile the boards
three miles of these elevated railroads in
the yard of saw mill, and generally on
the Saginaw river, the Grand river, the
Muskegon river, and, in fact at all places
where the lumber is shipped by water
the roads run out over water deep enough
to float the barges that come to load.
But the green boards are very heavy
because most of the logs are more or less
watersoaked A thousand feet of green
pine boards will weigh about 700 pounds,
and where mill cuts several hundred
thousand feet every day, men never could
keep the boards out of the way if they
had to haul or carry them away from the
mill by hand. That is the reason why
the mill men use horses to haul the
boards to the piles. You would think,
to look away up at those floors thirty or
forty feet high, and only perhaps ten
feet wide, or, indeed, not more than six,
that no horse could ever be made to
work there. But they do, hundreds of
them. 1t looks funny enough to see an
old horse tramping along up there as
quietly as he could if he were on the
ground and pulling away on those little
cars and their iron wheels and rails
load that he could not move If 1t were
piled on a wagon upon the street
1t takes time and special training and
care to make horses work on the IL"
roads of the mills. They must be taught
never to get uneasy. to jerk, jump or shy,
no matter what occurs, for otherwise they
would, in all probability, tumble off and
get killed or drowned about as fast as
they could be got up there. The conse-
ouence is that no driver is allowed to
beat his horse under any circumstances.
At most he is permitted to carry only
bit of rope with one end frayed out into
a sort of wisp, which is soft and painless
in it's stroke. 1t is little more than a,
f1v brush and serves that purpose.
The horses soon learn their i'm
munity from corporal punish
ment, and the knowledge seems
to waken in their minds the same feel
ing of dignity and egotism that makes
one boy or girl say he or she is better
than some other boy or girl. The ola
horse of the mill train stands on his high
way and never says word. but you can
see him looking down upon the horses
that have to pull wagons and buggles
through the dirt under the whip with
supreme contempt, and turning up ms
nose at them as if he thought they be-
longed to an inferior race.
Nibs was one OF those nlgn-toileu'
aristocratic old mill horses, whose duty
it was to haul the cars back and tortn
between the lumber piles and the MILL
Fed was his driver. Nibs was sixteen
years old. Fed was only thirteen; MOS
was white-haired fat, sleek and SLOW;
in fact, he was lazy, but he only calico II
dignity himself, and when Fed taxed
loud at him, swore called him names anu
switched him with the wisp to make MN
hurry, he had habit of stopping ID ms
walk, turning his head round and nxlng
his eyes on Fed with cool stare, as II
he were saying, Come OFT Whos
doing this? You tend to that TOWING me
and leave me alone, young man. OF L.
wake you up one of these days|,
Then bed stamp one forefoot, KICK ms
belly with a mind foot, switch MS Vail
first on one side, then the other, sn lar
his loose skin all over to start the nles
and move on with the most provoklng
nonchalance possible. Fed, ike mos mos.
boys, thought it wasn's much OF trlc TICK
to boss horse, and so he became mole
and more bold with Nibs, swearing a.
him, jerking his bride, calling MN .,. Gsu
names and switching him with the Wlsp
until one day Nibs stopped suddenly
while Fed was berating him, turnea
.-:.I,- .ha,+ oo,rbt hold of the DaCk